Clément Noel doubles up in Kitzbuehel

One week after his first victory in career in Wengen, Clément Noel skied to another triumph on the Ganslern course in Kitzbuehel. He beat superstar Marcel Hirscher and his fellow countryman Alexis Pinturault.

The race schedule of the 2019 Hahnenkamm races has been swapped and the traditional slalom on the Ganslernhang took place on Saturday. The reason for this program change was the heavy snowfall, and the weather was as forecasted, with snowfall starting during the night and carrying on during the whole day.

But nothing could stop the young Clément Noel. The Frenchman, who podiumed in Adelboden and claimed his first World Cup win in Wengen, was unbeatable also on the classical Kitzbuehl slalom. Second of the first run, he was able to stay calm and bring down his best performance also in the second run to award the French team with another slalom success.

Only in 9th place after the first run (NB: the same position he had in 2017 when he ended up winning the race), Marcel Hirscher impressed by clocking the fastest time in the second run, to finish in the second place of the 2019 Hahnenkamm slalom. The 134th podium in his career.

Alexis Pinturault found his slalom shape again. For some years focusing more on the speed disciplines, the French record holder invested a lot of ours on his slalom skills this summer, and it definitely paid off. Already in Zagreb he earned a podium placement, and he was now able to win his first Kitzbuehl Gams in the slalom.

Tomorrow, the race weekend will conclude with the super-g on the Streif, that was originally scheduled on Friday.

Results are available here: Kitzbuehel SL

Quotes from the Top 3 are available here: Soundcloud